Hamilton's Latella, Clinton's Palladino soccer co-coaches of the year

Thursday

Gil Palladino and Brian Latella, the 2011 Observer-Dispatch All Mohawk Valley co-boys soccer coaches of the year, led their teams to the same place but in different ways.

Gil Palladino and Brian Latella, the 2011 Observer-Dispatch All Mohawk Valley co-boys soccer coaches of the year, led their teams to the same place but in different ways.

Hamilton Central’s Latella, named coach of the year for the second-consecutive season, took the Emerald Knights to Middletown for the state final four last month and won the team’s second Class D title in four years.

Palladino, in his 19th season at Clinton, also guided his team to Middletown. It was the first state final-four appearance for the recognized Section III power, but the Class B Warriors lost in the semifinals to The Wheatley School.

The contrast in what Latella and Palladino, the 2005 All Mohawk Valley coach of the year, accomplished this season is in the teams they coached.
Clinton’s pre-season potential was so well known that Palladino nearly tried to talk his players into lowering their expectations when they said to a man that anything less than a trip to the state finals would render 2011 a failure.

Before this season, Clinton (20-1-0) had never advanced past a state regional game but the Warriors – led by 17 seniors – took a collective stand and came within one game of reaching their goal in a season that history will not mark as a failure.

“I absolutely went along with it because I wanted their confidence to be supported by the coach,” Palladino said.

In turn those players supported Palladino, 59, who learned an enduring lesson from his most “memorable season.”

“I’m reinforced that I don’t need to control everything,” Palladino said. “I think there are players who have a mature approach to things I could see asking underclassmen in the future to help with the decision making.”

Latella, 33 and in his ninth season, had a team that needed to replace five starters. If it’s possible for a team that won three-consecutive section title and made three-consecutive state final four appearances to fly under the radar, then Hamilton did that for much of 2011.

The Emerald Knights (20-3-0) went 4-2 in their first six matches, and the early-season losses were unusual and difficult to swallow. Latella, true to his philosophy, relied on team captains Drew Thompson, Devin Askew, Sam Owens and Sam Hale to right the ship.

“Leadership for players is a big part of Hamilton Central soccer and Hamilton athletics,” Latella said. “Players have to have a voice.”

Two of Hamilton’s three losses were to new Center State Conference division rival Clinton. The other defeat was to Holland Patent, but the competitive matches with Palladino’s Warriors reinforced Latella’s belief that Hamilton would be ready for the Section III Class D tournament.

“In 2008 (the last time Hamilton won a state title) we had experience at every position and speed and skill and it was our goal (to get to final four),” Latella said. “This year it was completely different. We were one game at a game. Without those two games against Clinton, we wouldn’t have been as strong as we were.”

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